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[chua_riwap]

Ekwe Willing to Undergo Naturalization and Play for Phil. Team

The Daily Tribune
Oct. 27, 2007

http://www.tribune.net.ph/sports/20071027spo7.html

There’s a foreigner knocking on the door of Team Philippines.

Sam Ekwe yesterday became the first foreign player to formally express his intent in joining the men’s national basketball team through the process of naturalization.

Ekwe, the 6-foot-9 Nigerian behemoth who dominated the lanes when San Beda College swept Letran College in the recent NCAA Finals, said the country has been his home and there’s no better way of returning the favor than playing for the national squad. He said he is willing to go through the process of naturalization for him to formally acquire Filipino citizenship.

“Yes, why not?” Ekwe said during the Anta Collegiate Awards the other night where he was chosen as the 2007 NCAA San Miguel Defensive Player of the Year. “I love the Philippines, I love staying here and I’ll be happy to play for them only if they will allow me to.”

And it seems Ekwe, or any naturalized Filipino, is what the doctor ordered for Team Philippines to steer the country back to its lofty status in the Asian region.

In 1983, the country used seven naturalized citizens in the 1983 Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) tournament in Hong Kong. Though the squad swept the eliminations, the victories were forfeited after International Basketball Federation (Fiba) mandated that they should be informed about the naturalization process two years before the actual competition.

The last time the country banked on the naturalized citizens was in 1986 when Chip Engelland, Jeff Moore and Dennis Steele powered Northern Consolidated Cement (NCC) to an ABC title in Malaysia. ABC is now known as Fiba-Asia, the same tournament where the FIlipinos placed ninth when it was held in Tokushima, Japan this year.

Though it’s quite late, BAP-Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (BAP-SBP) executive director Patrick “Pato” Gregorio said Ekwe will be a big addition to the squad trying to reclaim the crown in the 24th Southeast Asian Games in Thailand.

He said hiring Ekwe, who has BAP-SBP president Manny Pangilinan as godfather in the Red Lions’ camp, has already crossed his mind, but he later on junked its possibility thinking that the mild-mannered native of Lagos, Nigeria might turn him down. But now that Ekwe has personally signified his intention, he could possibly help him in fast-tracking his papers in the Bureau of Immigration.

“It was such a patriotic move,” Gregorio said. “It really crossed my mind because he has been here for more than two years and he already knows our culture pretty well. I know we’ll be a basketball powerhouse again once he’s around.”

[jonski]

No ba yan....na bogbog g Welcoat ang Ginebra 64-84

[chua_riwap]

^^^ Tambak.........

[Syuryuken]

mahina talaga team natin ngayon

[baludoy]

^sino ba natanggal sa bgk ngayon? meron ba?

[shadow]

ganyan talaga ang bida, pabugbog muna sa umpisa....

[chua_riwap]

ganyan talaga ang bida, pabugbog muna sa umpisa....

Oo nga, tama ka.........ganyan din sila noon eh.

[SIZE="1"](Palakas loob pa........)[/SIZE]

[RedHorse]

Oo nga, tama ka.........ganyan din sila noon eh.

[SIZE="1"](Palakas loob pa........)[/SIZE]

ginugulpi sila ngayon ng coke

[BoEinG_747]

ganyan talaga ang bida, pabugbog muna sa umpisa....

brod may mga bida din na bugbog hanggang huli at tuluyan namatay

pero cge lang lalaban din iyan .
parang iyon kanta lang ni Gary Granada "manalo't matalo Ginebra pa rin"
baka kahit paano makatulong pag bumalik si spark (ayyyy sana )

[evs_13]

brod may mga bida din na bugbog hanggang huli at tuluyan namatay

pero cge lang lalaban din iyan .
parang iyon kanta lang ni Gary Granada "manalo't matalo Ginebra pa rin"
baka kahit paano makatulong pag bumalik si spark (ayyyy sana )

agree ako sa iyo bro, yan ang baranggay ginebra spirit..... kaya pa yan, bawi pa yan sa susunod.... pinagbigyan lang ang welcoat, wala pa kasi panalo,